Wildlife GO wins Rep. Bill Huizenga’s 2023 Congressional App Challenge in Michigan’s Fourth District

When asked what inspired the creation of Wildlife GO, the students said, “Here in Michigan, like many other states, we have so many awesome parks and outdoor green spaces. Many people don’t realize or enjoy these spaces, so we created this game/app to get people to go out and explore their surroundings and be more involved with their natural environment. It may seem like creating a phone app to get people to go out and enjoy nature is contradictory, but we believe that once someone is involved and invested in the outdoors, a love of nature is sure to follow.

Another reason we created this app is that a lot of parks are generally underfunded. We hope that with more people out using the park’s infrastructure, there will be more funding and money put into the parks to make them even better and more enjoyable for all people.

A third reason we created this app is to raise awareness about parks and nature conservation. We put in a lot of National Parks Service links that talk about hiking, camping, and exploring safely. We also have a section about getting involved with the parks. We used a .gov website that has a lot of volunteering opportunities if users want to get involved that way, or we have other ways that users can get involved that take less time or input effort. In addition, we included a link to the National Parks Service, where users can donate to support the parks.”